The winter holidays are upon us, and we want to make sure everyone has a fun activity to do as they celebrate. For those who celebrate Kwanzaa, I’ve created a fun find and count activity page, both in color and in black and white.
Print it off and share with your students, your family, or your friends. It would also be a great resource to use if you learn about the different winter holidays with your class. Have fun, and happy finding!
*This printable is free to download, but is not to be resold, reposted, or claimed as your own.*
As teachers, we often focus on creating a cohesive classroom, with students who can work well together, help each other, and respect one another. For some classes, this happens naturally, with minimal effort on our part. For other classes, however, it takes a lot of work and effort. The end result is always worth the effort it takes, as a cohesive class makes teaching go so much smoother, and the overall feel of the classroom is positive.
Even as adults, we gravitate toward environments, people, and situations that make us feel welcome and included. It just makes sense— no one wants to be part of something where they feel unwanted. Everyone wants to feel like they belong in all aspects of their life, and this includes in the workplace.
Have you ever been an employee at a place where none of the employees get along and there is just an overall negative feeling among the staff? Did you find yourself wanting to go to work or dreading it? It’s not a fun situation to be in. Working in an environment that is negative and unwelcoming can really take a toll on the employees, creating low morale, lack of motivation, and toxicity— none of which I care to be around!
So if a positive, unified staff and work experience is what we gravitate toward, how do we make that happen? Is it by socializing with coworkers outside of school? Perhaps. Is it by communicating with one another to discuss the needs of students? That definitely helps! Maybe it happens through team building games and activities at staff meetings and trainings (does anyone even like those anyway?!). Or, perhaps, unity comes through taking the time to get to know those you work with, supporting them, and learning to understand who they are beyond the role of teacher. Rather than it coming through just one single method, unity comes through continued effort, time, and dedication to the cause.
Having a unified staff creates more than just a positive feeling at the workplace. Unity fosters relationships. When teachers and employees get along and respect each other, the students notice. The positivity can be felt and can be contagious. There are a lot of things we don’t want to spread through the school— like sickness, rumors, and negativity—but positivity and unity are two things that every school could use a bit more of.
The next time you find yourself in a staff meeting or training, and find yourself pushing through team building exercises, do your best to make it a positive situation. It’s true that not everyone loves doing team building, but if we can do our best to participate with a positive attitude, we are much more likely to get something out of the exercise and do our part to contribute to an overall feeling of positivity at the school.
And just like that, we are already to December! The winter holidays are fast approaching— are you ready?!
Last year, I created and shared a Christmas I Spy page for you to download and use in your classroom or home. You can find that here.
I realize that not everyone celebrates Christmas, so I’ve created a Hanukkah Find & Count page for you to use in your classroom or home. If you want to use the Christmas download with your class, and have a few students who celebrate Hanukkah, now they can join in on the fun without feeling out of place. Including everyone is so important!
*Hopefully coming soon: a search and find for Kwanzaa and a black & white Christmas I Spy page!
This printable is free to download, and is only for classroom and personal use. Do not resell it or claim it as your own.
If you are a graduating senior, work with seniors, or know a senior who will be graduating in 2026, this information is for you!
Every year in May, Honors Graduation awards five $10,000 scholarships to deserving graduating seniors. Though May is still six months away, now is the time for students to be working on their projects for the scholarship application. Our scholarship is awarded based on community improvement projects, and these kinds of projects typically take several months or more to plan and carry out. We encourage all kinds of projects and look forward to seeing the amazing things that are happening in our communities.
Below are the links and information you will need to apply for our scholarship. We’d love if you could spread the word and share our scholarship information with any graduating seniors you may know!
This link will take you to our information page, where you can read about our Build A Better Scholarship, including rules, eligibility requirements, and deadline dates.
If you would like to read over some frequently asked questions, you can click here.
Having a hard time coming up with a project idea? Browse through the work of our previous winners here to get a feel for what kinds of projects have been successful.
We welcome any questions you may have about our scholarship program! Please contact us at scholarship@honorsgraduation.com and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.
As a student, field trip days were highly anticipated days— a break from the “normal” school routine and schedule, eating lunch somewhere other than the cafeteria, and a chance to ride the bus with your friends! What more could a student ask for?!
For teachers, though, it’s a bit more involved than just hopping on the bus and going somewhere fun. You’ve got to coordinate and pay for the bus. You also have to arrange with the lunchroom staff so they can plan accordingly and have sack lunches made for the students who need them. There’s also a need for chaperones, so you’ve got to plan in advance and get volunteers worked out. It’s definitely more work than staying in the classroom teaching a lesson. Even though field trips are a lot of work for teachers, there are good educational benefits that come from the experiences students have while on them. Field trips give students hands on learning experiences and let them learn in ways that are sometimes hard to do in the classroom.
While unlimited field trips would be an amazing thing for schools, that just isn’t the case— there are budgets that must be adhered to and it just isn’t feasible in so many ways. Today, however, technology has made it possible for teachers to “take” their classes on field trips all over the world, allowing students to experience places they likely wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise.
Zoos and other wildlife facilities across the planet have set up cameras to livestream various animals for people to watch. Museums around the world have filmed tours of their sites. Historic places have filmed and set up interactive tours to allow students to get an up close look at things of the past. It’s really quite incredible!
When learning about our nation’s symbols, important government buildings, and so on, my son’s kindergarten class took a virtual tour of Washington DC. My son came home so excited to tell us all about the things he had learned and seen on his field trip. As a parent, I was so grateful he had that opportunity, because taking him to actually see those places in person wasn’t an option at the time.
Many of the places that provide virtual field trips also provide lesson plans and activities that teachers can use to teach about the places, people, and things at their location. Not only do students get to experience somewhere new and exciting, but teachers get to enjoy preplanned lessons!
There are so many places that offer these virtual field trips, and a simple Google search will provide you with a list of possibilities to choose from. That being said, below you will find a list of links to various places that offer these virtual experiences for your students. Feel free to explore and share any that you find interesting! Happy field tripping!
Great Lakes Now provides videos, lesson plans, and other educational information about the Great Lakes.
The Nature Conservancy allows students to visit and learn about various aspects of nature all around the world.
Not everyone will have the chance to visit Amsterdam to see the Anne Frank house in person, but you can watch a virtual tour of it here.
If you’ve ever wanted to experience what life in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia was like, you can explore the town here.
The Natural History Museum provides an expansive look at many aspects of the people, places, and animals of past years. If you want an up close look at some of their exhibits, past and present, you can experience that here.
For your students who are interested in the way Amazon fulfills orders, this virtual tour might be an exciting opportunity for them to see how it all works!
Students can learn all about what happens to our garbage and recycling through this virtual tour shared by Republic Services.
Learning to count is an essential skill for kids to learn, so why not make it fun?! Last November, I created and shared a printable Thanksgiving themed I-Spy page. You can find it here. Since last year’s page was only in color, I thought I’d share a black and white I-Spy printable this year!
These I-Spy/ Find and Count pages are great for early finishers, class parties, fun math activities, or even as a game. Parents can also print them for their kids for long car rides, waiting rooms, quiet time, or to be used to keep kids entertained while the turkey is cooking!
**Printable is free, but is intended for classroom or home/personal use only. It is not to be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own.**
School dress up days— the bane of every parent’s existence. These days range from super simple (I see you, Crazy Sock Day) to wildly outrageous (Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day I’m looking at you!). The students love them, the teachers tolerate them, and the parents could do without one more thing to add to the calendar.
Why even have special dress up days? Will crazy hair day teach kids to stay drug free? Probably not. Will they remember the dress up days when they are adults? Again, probably not (unless it was extra cool and memorable). So if they don’t really serve any sort of educational purpose, why have them?
I think the easy answer to that is that dress up days are fun. They bring a silly, creative element to a normal school day, and students thrive on fun and creative. In addition to that, there is usually a “punny” saying that is made up to help students make a connection between the dress up day and the lesson/theme for the day— such as “Team Drug Free!— wear your favorite team’s color or gear!”
This week is “Healthy Choices Week” at my kids’ school, and boy were they excited for the week to start! I started to grumble and mumble about it as soon as I saw the email in my inbox. My feelings changed, though, when I opened the email to find that the dress up days were incredibly easy— still fun— but easy enough that we didn’t need to do any extra planning or creating, and easy enough that little thought or effort has been required of my thinking skills… and that’s a win in my book!
I appreciate when the school staff doesn’t go too overboard with these kinds of days. It truly makes my mornings easier! This week’s dress up days include:
Drug Prevention Monday: Be “RED”y to say no to drugs— wear red
Tasty Tuesday: Add colorful fruits and veggies to your diet— wear the color of your favorite fruit of veggie
Workout Wednesday: Get up and move— wear your favorite workout clothes
Online Safety Thursday: “Hats off to online safety!” — wear your favorite hat
Get Good Sleep Friday: Help your body grow by getting enough sleep— wear your pajamas
These kind of dress up days involve the kinds of things my kids wish they could wear to school more often, especially the hats and pajamas! It makes it easier for them to want to participate when it’s stuff they already have, actually want to wear, and doesn’t cause them any extra attention. There are many students who don’t enjoy participating in dress up days when they involve them going beyond their comfort zones and doing wacky and crazy things.
While dress up days don’t typically serve an “educational” purpose, they do give something fun for students to look forward to and provide them an opportunity to get involved in a school wide community. They may not be for everyone, but that’s ok! What’s your take on dress up days?
